Nearly nine months after the Islamic State group beheading of former UCF student and journalist Steven Sotloff, UCF has established a fund to commemorate his life.

The Steven Sotloff Memorial Endowed Fund at UCF, created by Sotloff's family, was made not only to honor his life, but to preserve his work.

"His family wanted to establish a legacy for Steven," said College of Sciences' Director of Development Ray Allen.

Allen said he interacted with Sotloff's family at UCF, where they came up with a way to remember the former Knight.

Through donations, the fund aims to provide scholarship support to UCF students majoring in journalism. The fund was also established to advance journalism education, as well as endowments for lectures and programming.

"We have set up the memorial fund to invite other donors to support this fund in Steven's honor," Allen said.

Longtime UCF donors Tony and Sonja Nicholson — after whom the Nicholson School is named — have committed to match donation gifts to the fund.

"Every dollar will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 matched," Allen said.

Contributors can visit www.ucffoundation.org/sotloff, where they will be directed to fill in their donation amount, billing information and add whether they want this donation to be a one-time gift, recurring or a series of installments.

"While Steven was in captivity, he managed to smuggle out a letter to us stating he wanted to give back. We would like to continue Steven's legacy for generations to come by working with UCF to establish a fund in Steven's honor," said his parents Shirley and Arthur Sotloff in a statement on the donation page.

Sotloff attended UCF from 2002 to 2004, where he studied journalism. He then left to focus on working as a Middle East correspondent, wanting to travel to war zones like Libya and Syria.

Sotloff was abducted by the Islamist extremist group and held in captivity.

In Sept. 2014, in an attempt to send "A Message to America," the Islamic State group beheaded Sotloff in a distributed video as a way to reach President Barack Obama.

UCF students from the athletics fan group "The Gauntlet," UCF's Syrian American Council and the UCF chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists joined together to host a vigil that same month to honor Sotloff.

Along with UCF's contribution, Sotloff's parents established a fund at his high school, Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire.

The Steven Sotloff '02 Fund aims to inspire Kimball students to follow Sotloff's passion: seeing the world through a different lens, while following global and cultural awareness.

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Marina Guerges is the Editor-in-Chief at the Central Florida Future. Follow her on Twitter at @marinaguerges or email her at MarinaG@CentralFloridaFuture.com.